Trip to France organised..

We have finally arranged our visit back to France to visit the notaire so we can arrange wills etc. We are leaving the boys at home with Laura. Boisterous 12 and 13 year old boys and notaire's offices are not a good combination. We fly out on Wednesday 10th May (from East Midlands airport this time) to Bergerac and return on Sunday 14th. We've not done this route before as we normally fly to Bordeaux so it will be interesing to compare.

We were hoping to find a bed and breakfast near to the village, preferably with French owners - as we really need to improve our spoken French and can do with all the practice we can get. We did find a B&B in Tourtoirac (just a little further along the Auvèzere from St Pantaly d'Ans) but, unfortunately, it was fully booked. The owner (Claudie) very kindly contacted her friend in the village to see if she had rooms - but, again, fully booked. However, while we were emailing Claudie, we stumbled across a house in our village that was available for rent (the owners live next door - we think) ....so we have just booked that. We haven't mentioned to the owners why we are visiting the village - but it will be a good way of getting to know our new neighbours!

The china purchasing is progressing nicely - I managed to get another 20 place setting on ebay so I now have 12 dinner plates and side plates, 8 bowls and 8 cups and saucers (plus all the veggie dishes etc.) So a visit to the factory shop for another 4 bowls and 8 mugs - and hey presto...!

We have decided against buying furniture here and having it delivered to France. The delivery charges we were being quoted were £1,500 to over £3,000 pounds - and we only wanted to take the basics. We looked at the furniture in But and Fly (the two big French stores) but didn't really like much of it - so it's a visit to Ikea for the sofas etc and to the antiquities et brocantes (antique and second hand shops) for the rest. It seems silly to pay to take furniture to France when people seem to be making a business out of bringing French antiques etc over here. A search on pages jaunes (yellow pages - www.pagesjaunes.fr) around our area gave us a huge list of possibilities so I'm quite looking forward to browsing around.

The notaire is letting us take the key with us for the time we are in France so we can measure up etc. It will be very odd visiting the house after so long. We are hoping it will still look as beautiful as we remembered. We are trying to make the most of the time we have with the key and have a local builder from Hautefort coming to give us a quote for the repairs we need to make to the roof valley guttering (and hopefully an idea of the likely cost of some of the other jobs). So far we only have one builder to quote for us - which is a bit unfortunate. I have found a few other names of local builders (again from yellow pages) but none seem to have email addresses (clearly buildres aren't very techy!) As I mentioned before, I hate talking on the phone in French, so until my French improves, its in writing or face to face. We have a list of addresses so maybe a drive around when we are there... Just as an aside - the French yellow pages is much better then the UK one...

The compromis has arrived

We finally received the signed compromis today by registered post - though we nearly didn't realise. Son and heir signed for the post, dumped it on one side and promptly forgot to mention it! I came across it by accident - our seven day cooling off period could have elapsed without us knowing.

The bank have confirmed they have received our medical insurance forms and have forwarded them to the insurance company - so just waiting for the 'ok'. We have also taken out a forward contract for the balance of the funds needed to pay for the house. I had telephoned our bank in the UK to determine how long it would take for the transfer of the sterling funds into our current account to clear. This was well ahead of the date that the notaire had said we would need to transfer the funds (in Euro) to him. I asked HIFX (our currency brokers) for advice on the best date for the swap - and the dipstick on the other end of the phone assured me two days after the cleared funds were in my current account would be fine. What he ommitted to tell me (until after he had secured the contract) was that we would have to have the cleared funds with HIFX on the date of the swap contract. Telephoning my bank I was advised - no way. Unless we paid £25 for a CHAPS transfer, the funds would take a week to get to HIFX!! I know £25 is not a vast sum of money but there was no way I was paying £25 because HIFX screwed up on the choice of date. So after a heated conversation with HIFX it was agreed - HIFX will wait until the funds have cleared by BACS - even if that is several days after the contract date.

We are still working through what we need for the house. I have bought quite a few things already (mainly kitchen stuff) but we had a big dilemma over china. The house is quite big (5 bedrooms) and there are five of us - plus other family and friends so we will need plenty of place settings. I wanted something pretty but not too expensive which we could happily put in the dishwasher. I remembered that I had quite a few 'completer' pieces for the Sarah's Garden range from Wedgwood that my sister had bought for me (at ridiculously low prices) when she worked there. I also had four dinner plates - not much but at least it was a start. I have since bought a 20 piece place setting for £31 from ebay, another 4 side plates for £9.99 - again from ebay. I had seen another 20 place setting for £52 but wasn't quick enough! I will keep watch - and if all else fails they sell the range in the local Wedgwood factory shop - though not at bargain basement prices. I'm hoping to et 12 place settings in total which should give us plenty and allow for breakages. And I have my Doulton wine glasses - bought for the grand sum of 50p each ;). A 16 place setting of cutlery (bamboo pattern) for the princely sum of £20..... Slowly but surely!

Forms - Grrr

Well the long awaited package arrived from the bank. No details of our current account just another pile of forms with a note attached to call the bank when we received them. I duly telephoned and struggled through the conversation in French and eventually managed to get connected to our advisor (who, fortunately, speaks English). Apparently the forms are for sickness and death insurance for the mortgage, which is mandatory in France. Our advisor said that, of course, we could answer 'non' to all the questions? Ahermm - no. Question one was a fairly straightforward 'non' - and from there it went downhill. Which means I have to fill the forms in in detail and have to complete supplementary forms. I'm just trying to work out the French for 'key hole surgey on knee' :S and resigning myself to another pile of paperwork. Needless to say other half could write 'non' to all questions.

Had an email from the vendor - both have now signed so the contract is on its way to us by recorded delivery. He is visiting this week to empty the house of furniture - except for those pieces we are buying - which, after much debate, is now down to a dining table and six chairs, a bed and the fridge. Looks like we will need to shop for furniture pretty quickly.

I have bought some basic kitchen stuff - pots, pans, cutlery...that sort of thing - and started packing some boxes of smaller things to take with us. We had hoped to be able to get some 'cheap' table ware (living in the mecca (or should I say former mecca) of the 'potteries') but it seems that the only things available locally from the factory shops are horrendously expensive fine bone china (albeit heavily discounted) or really naff designs. Only been to the Doulton and Portmeirion shops so far so will keep looking...

Just as an aside - I hate having to talk on the telephone in French. I keep hoping that, after all our lessons, the penny will drop but each time I prepare, plan what I am going to say - and more importantly what they may say in reply. I start off fine - then I get the volley of fast incomprehensible French back and my brain turns to mush and I stand at the other end of the phone with my mouth working but nothing coming out. Feeling like a complete idiot - again!

We have a mortgage

We finally heard from the bank today - our mortgage has been approved! So we opened a bottle of wine last night - to celebrate getting into debt!

Still no news on whether the other vendor has signed. The notaire is going to email them again. But if the notaire doesn't know that means that she hasn't received the contract - which means it will be at least another week before we receive it! We are just hoping now that the vendors haven't had a change of heart.

We need to arrange a meeting with the notaire before we sign the 'Acte de Vente' (final contract) to sort out wills, inheritance tax and things like that. Talking about dying and wills seems a little depressing but France has very different inheritance tax rules to the UK. In the UK property is normally held by a married couple in a 'joint tenancy' arrangement so that each spouse has 'joint and several ownership'. Basically this means that if I die the house will be automatically be owned by my husband. The same applies to UK bank accounts held by husband and wife. It is possible to change the ownership to a 'tenancy in common' so that each spouse owns 50% of the house. On the death of one of the spouses, their 50% then doesn't pass to the spouse but can be left directly to any children. This is a common method of inheritance tax planning in the UK. 'Au contraire en France' property is subjected to French inheritance tax as though it were held as a tenancy in common. There are also protected rights for children, parents and remoter family members. The spouse, by right, receives very little and has to pay inheritance on the death of their partner. Preference is given to blood relatives which can cause some undesirable results and a nasty shock when the tax bill arrives.

There are several ways around this and this is why we need to meet with the notaire to discuss our options. We had hoped to visit at Easter, spend some time at the house, visit the notaire and get some 'devis' (quotes) for the work we need to have done on the 'toiture' (roof). However, all this is now on hold as son and heir has SATs after Easter and so needs to be revising not messing about in the Auvezère River. So looks like a visit after Easter instead.

So back to the wine and celebrating our debt - 'Cul sec!' (Bottoms up!)